Water availability for Fort Ord development in question

One of the oldest battle fronts in Monterey County is about to become the newest weapon for environmentalists opposing development of open space on Fort Ord.

Attorneys for Keep Fort Ord Wild said Friday they plan to demand the Monterey County Water Resources Agency place a moratorium on any new water hook-ups on Fort Ord until the public is given a clear picture of the limited resources available.

Water allotments on the former Army base have been the source of controversy in recent months, but there has been little discussion about how much water actually exists in the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin's deep, 900-foot aquifer.

Not much, according to two studies uncovered by the group's attorneys, Michael Stamp and Molly Erickson. And what is there likely fell from the skies 20,000 years ago or more.

A 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Survey and another commissioned by the Marina Coast Water District in 2003 found that the basin's 900-foot aquifer receives only minimal recharge from the upper aquifers and may be a finite resource. The studies also suggest continued pumping from the "minimal" volume in the deep basin may worsen seawater intrusion in the aquifers above it.

The Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control District's recycled water project was developed at great cost to Salinas Valley farmers to combat saltwater intrusion. Marina Coast Water District is planning to deliver the recycled water farmers don't use in the winter to augment supplies at Fort Ord.

But if pumping for potable water exacerbates the seawater intrusion, farmers could need all the water produced by their expensive project, leaving desalination as Fort Ord's only hope.

The USGS conducted carbon testing on water pulled from the deep aquifer for its 2002 study. The results "suggest that the deep aquifer system in the Marina area was not recharged under current climatic conditions."

Even considering the uncertainty of such testing, it continues, "the results indicate that these groundwaters were probably recharged thousands of years before present."

A study conducted the next year by Water Resources & Information Management Engineering (WRIME) Inc. concluded that recharge to the basin from rainfall is "minimal" and that "the volume of groundwater that can be removed from storage is not large."

All potable water for Fort Ord development is expected to come from the deep aquifer.

Marina Coast engineer Andrew Sterbenz disputed the contention the aquifer is not being recharged. He said monitoring wells have shown a constant level in the aquifer despite ongoing pumping, indicating water is being replaced.

But Justin Kulongoski, a USGS research hydrologist who has studied water quality in the basin, said the conclusion is not necessarily accurate. Constant pressure in the aquifer could be maintaining the levels while the volume is shrinking south of the monitoring well, he said.

Howard Franklin, senior hydrologist with the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, said he agrees with Kulongoski. After more than a decade of studying the basin, however, he believes there is some recharge in the 900-foot aquifer from the 180- and 400-foot aquifers above, though it may take centuries to trickle down.

While the volume of water that can be pumped from the deep basin is unknown, Franklin said, neither he nor his agency believes pumping there will affect seawater intrusion in the upper aquifers.

District General Manager David Chardavoyne and Assistant General Manager Rob Johnson were not available for comment Friday.

Michael Salerno, spokesman for Keep Fort Ord Wild, said the apparent agreement that the volume of water in the basin is limited raises questions about development on Fort Ord. If allocations are approved and developers move forward on projects like Monterey Downs in Seaside, what happens to projects that have already been approved but are stalled on Fort Ord's abandoned urban footprint?

"How long will the blight sit there with no water allocation?" he asked. "It raises the question of whether the highest and best use is to expand the (Fort Ord) National Monument" and keep the land permanently in open space.

At a minimum, said Erickson, his attorney, the public needs to be educated about the limited nature of the resource before any more decisions are made about divvying it up.

Erickson said it was only through "extensive and diligent research" that she found the two reports, which appear to be the only that have studied the geology of the deep basin.

Web searches revealed only references to the WRIME report. Erickson said she got it from Marina Coast Water District only after a delayed response to a public records request.

"It appears to have been hidden from the public," she said.

"We're asking for a moratorium until the information regarding the deep aquifer has been fully disclosed and people understand how much supply there is, how long it will be before it will run out and what will happen then," she said. "There is a perception that Fort Ord has (unlimited) water. We see from these studies that perception is dead wrong."